Wonderful. So what we are having here from V/M fans: respect to some tabloid press, bullying non-native English speaker's grammar skills (are they even serious? ) and advocating for giving non-V/M uber the Badge of Honour "Banned for bashing Skate Canada!"

Carry on.

Then some people get upset when nationalism is brought up. Or feel disappointed that not so many non-NA posters are around. They are not around because they read posts like that and don't want to posts.

I've been lurking for the last few months and it's been some time since I posted something, but just wanted to add my two cents on this: Shaming non-native speakers for what is perceived as "not perfect" English, even if what they are writing is perfectly understandable, is not cool IMO. Shaming people for spelling mistakes etc. is not cool in general IMO.

About the two Carmens: I liked both. I very much enjoyed C/L's more linear, traditional approach. Don't agree that it's only "skin deep" (as I've read somewhere else on this board), it's restrained but to the point IMO. V/M's approach is interesting and has them finally (finally, finally!!!) go away from their fixation on "lovey dovey" stuff (no, i don't agree with the people who say all their FDs in the last years were totally different and anybody who can't see that is just an ignorant peasant...apart from "Pink Floyd" and to some degree the Latin FD they didn't venture enough out of their comfort zone for me). It did look a bit rough around the edges technically (?), though I'm no expert on that. And there seemed to be too much posing, something which I also found problematic in Krylova/Ovsiannikov's Carmen. I think the much too open and much too posing-heavy middle part Linichuk choreographed actually may have played a role in costing them Olympic gold medal chances.

I want to stress that katha is right: making fun of non native English speakers and writers is something GS frowns upon. I know that I have immense respect for anyone who can formulate their thoughts in a language not their own.

Additionally, it is against the Guidelines to drag fights from other figure skating boards to this board.

Finally, although I edited the phrase "yellow journalism" to "tabloid journalism" in deference to complaints, people should be aware that that is a phrase whose origin dates back to the fights between William Randolph Hearst & Joseph Pulitzer where each accused the other of it, and is used in translated form in both Greek & French, and probably other languages. In fact, "yellow journalism" is blamed in history classes for getting the US into at least 2 if not more wars. The phrase itself dates in the US from a cartoon of the early last century called "The Yellow Kid" about an Irish kid who had a long yellow shirt that had illspelled headline like language on it as part of his conversations. The color yellow gets a generally bad rap from its association with jaundice and the medieval medical theory of "humors", which included yellow bile.

I'm sorry, I posted here something I wanted to write about the CoC FD! Now I've deleted it...

I saw your post on the CoC FD thread. I have a similar question about one of H/D's lifts which has been downgraded twice now, from L4 last season to L2, at Finlandia and SC. It's the one where Madison does a vertical split while standing on Zach's boot and he's in a crouching position. Anybody have any clues?

Lifted partner sustains a Difficult Pose for at least 3 seconds or moves through a Change of Pose

OR

Lifting partner sustains a Difficult Position for at least 3 seconds

For Level 3:

Lifted partner sustains a Difficult Pose for at least 3 seconds or moves through a Change of Pose
AND

Lifting partner sustains a Difficult Position for at least 3 seconds

Zach is doing the following difficult position correctly:

g) Crouch with two knees bent (thighs at least parallel to the ice) on two feet;

Madison is attempting:

a) Full split: when the legs of the lifted partner are extended in one line with the angle between
thighs about 180 degrees;

If you look, Madison's split is less than 180 degrees, so she doesn't get credit for a difficult position. Zach's crouch is fine. Unless both partners get credit for a difficult position, the difficult entry makes no difference at all.

If you look, Madison's split is less than 180 degrees, so she doesn't get credit for a difficult position. Zach's crouch is fine. Unless both partners get credit for a difficult position, the difficult entry makes no difference at all.

They get level 2 for the lift.

Ah, thanks for the analysis. Have to take out the old protractor, I guess